The temperature outside approached freezing, but it wasn’t just the chill in the air that cooled Kinston High’s bats Monday at Grainger Stadium.

South Lenoir’s Will Graves was the culprit, scattering just four hits and fanning eight over seven sterling innings, as the Blue Devils’ offense erupted late for a 10-3 victory over their county rivals.

“Will threw the ball very well,” SL coach David Combs said. “He kept his pitches down and did a great job with his fastball. He didn’t have to throw a breaking pitch until the third inning.”

The Vikings kept the game close, trailing 3-0 entering the sixth, but were undermined by seven errors leading to six unearned runs. The Vikings also hurt their own cause with five wild pitches.

“We’re a young team with a lot of unrealized potential,” Kinston coach Michael Ellsworth said. “That being said, we still have to do a better job of the routine things, like catching and throwing the ball.”

The Devils finally broke the game open with a six-run top of the sixth.

Although another Kinston error figured prominently in the inning, the Blue Devils (1-1) also pounded out six hits, including triples by Grant Tyndall and Trint Turner and two-run single by Noah Stroud.

“We were trying to pull everything in the first few innings,” Combs said. “In the sixth inning we finally started making some adjustments and it paid off.”

Graves was only in real trouble once, the fifth when Kinston (0-2) placed runners at second and third with one out.

After Combs visited the mound, Kinston’s Octavius Howell was then mowed down at the plate on an infield grounder, and Will Deters bounced out to second to end the threat.

“When I went to the mound, I told Will just to relax and keep doing the same things he’d been doing all game,” Combs said. “He settled down and got the job done. It was a big moment.”

How big a moment? Ellsworth felt like it might have been the turning point of the game.

“The game was still close (3-0) and we could have really put some pressure on them with a couple of runs in that situation,” Ellsworth said. “The momentum really turned against us after that.”

Kinston pitcher Taishu McLawhorn deserved a better fate. He surrendered just four hits and struck out three before tiring in the sixth.

SL’s Tyndall drove home a run in the first with an RBI single, but solo runs tallied by the Devils in the third and fifth came without benefit of a hit.

Kinston reached Graves for three unearned runs in the bottom of the seventh, highlighted by Deters’ single that scored Robert Blake.